Three offshore wind developers are suing the Trump administration after the Interior Department on Dec. 22 halted five projects worth a total of $25 billion. If completed, the projects would generate a total of 6 gigawatts of electricity.
Two lawsuits were filed Thursday and Friday of last week by Ørsted and Equinor, which are developing the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind and the 2-gigawatt Empire Wind, respectively. Another was filed Dec. 23 by Dominion Energy, which is building a 2.6 gigawatt farm off the coast of Virginia.
Revolution Wind is nearly 90% complete, while Empire Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind are each about 60% complete. Dominion said it was losing $5 million a day as a result of the shutdown.
Avangrid, which is developing Vineyard Wind 1, has not yet filed a complaint. Nearly half of this project is currently operational.
The Interior Ministry cited national security concerns in its decision to halt construction of these projects. Although it did not mention specifics, the Trump administration may have been referring to the challenges that wind turbines present for radar operations. The Department of Energy had released a report discussing this security issue, along with solutions, in February 2024.
The swirling blades of wind turbines are known to jam radar systems, but government and private company researchers have been working to mitigate the problem for more than a decade.
Choosing the precise site for wind energy projects is one of the best ways to mitigate interference. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management coordinates with the Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearing House to “review each proposed offshore wind project on a project-by-project basis and would attempt to allay concerns related to individual projects or multiple projects,” according to Vineyard Wind 1’s environmental impact statement.
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Newer radar systems can filter out noise produced by wind farms using adaptive processing algorithms, Rand Corporation principal engineer Nicholas O’Donoughue told TechCrunch. Vineyard Wind 1 agreed to help finance radar adaptations and reduce its operations at the request of the Pentagon, for example.
Earlier last year, the Trump administration suspended approvals for new offshore wind projects in addition to suspending work on Empire Wind and Revolution Wind. The latter restarted after New York state negotiated with the Trump administration, while a federal judge overturned Revolution Wind’s stop-work order.
